Thursday, December 2, 2010

It is time to tell this story. Because today i need to tell a story. I love things from my past - some of them live in glorious detail and others are just contained in a single image, like a postcard. This one made it all the way into a song and about ten postcards in my head. Once upon a time i was traveling around Europe - its something people do, and love. One December i was on a boat from Ireland to France, and on that boat i met a girl, from America!! And on that boat we talked and talked and i sang and i sang to her. And when we got to France we decided to travel around a bit together before we both had places to be for Christmas. And we had such fun together all the ways from Barcelona to Paris and Luxembourg. But then it was time to part and to have Christmas in other places.We agreed to meet again on new years day, at midday at Geneva Railway Station, on the same spot where we said farewell. A hug and a kiss and a wave goodbye. It didn't occur to me to need contact details, an email address, a phone number as agreeing to meet as we had seemed enough - just like it was a date :) Laughs at me. You can too.Come January 1 and i was at Geneva Railway Station early and i wandered around for a couple of hours prolly filling up on coffee and babybel cheese, and come midday i began to look at what trains were arriving to try and figure which one/s she may be on. When she hadn't arrived by midday i thought nothing of it as trains were arriving from all over at all times. But by 1pm, by 2pm, my heart was sinking. It was then that i decided to play my guitar, and busk, at Geneva Railway Station. So there!! I did!!I travelled around Europe with my guitar and a couple of books filled with handwritten songs, covers, that i liked to sing. I had memorised about six! This was my first busking dilemma though i was soon to realise that it wasn't a problem because no-one stayed to listen, at least not for six songs, so i just rotated the same six songs over and over :)And singing helped my heart be still, even as i watched out for each train arrival and saw each come and go with no sight of her. Ok ok i'll get to the end :)When all hope was reasonably lost and had been for some hours in all reality, and when my mind was turning to the night and what to do with myself, and i had stopped wishing upon every train that arrived, she did arrive, at 6pm :) Now how amazing is that LOLOLWe found somewhere to stay, a place overlooking a city square, and from our windows we watched snow fall out of a dark sky into the white light of the square, and we talked of many things, perhaps even of love.We travelled a bit longer through Europe until to America and Australia we did fly. Some time later as the idea for this song started to come to me, about memories and about remembering sweet people and sweet times, some thoughts of her from nowhere came and collided with mine, and this song, about lots of things, was written. Indeed partly about her. Indeed to remind me of busking. Indeed to always remind me to love the stories of my life whether they be in great detail or just a single postcard.

There is a link to the song in the heading of this post. Will there be more song stories from the bad boys of ballads? Well lets just see how a couple go.